trophy

There is not enough material in the centerlock hub for the studs to thread into. The small 'locating *****" are not to support the wheel just to impart drive forces, or braking forces.

spr993

Thanks for the explanation - shame, it would have been so much easier!

mooty

u will NOT regret. this is the mod to do.

spr993

Thanks for the explanations; money aside, if dealing with a second-hand 16k mile car, with unknown tracking history, and given Porsche's enhanced track maintenance schedule, would it make sense/be prudent to do the hubs, bearings AND wheel carriers at all 4 corners?

RedRSA

Typically not necessary to replace the wheel carriers. They can be inspected by your shop to make sure. Fortunately, they aren't crazy expensive if you need them (Sunset Porsche).

spr993

I'll be doing the inspecting! Bearing play is easy enough to detect - would you expect to find cracks in the wheel carriers or should they be x-rayed? I believe the cost is not insignificant - all 4 run $4-5k

trophy

If you are concerned you could do a dye test to the carrriers, places like Pegasus Racing supplies sells kits.

Don't worry about checking bearings, you need new ones when you put the new hubs in (Old ones are destroyed when removing the old hubs)

spr993

Completely agree: once the decision is taken to do the 5 lug conversion, bearings and hubs replacement is a given - my question was how necessary/prudent is it to also replace the carriers while everything is apart, considering Porsche now recommends doing the carriers as part of track maintenance. RedRSA seemed to think that typically it would not be necessary. Unfortunately, those four carriers add up to quite a lot of mullah.

mooty

unless it s a pure track *****, I don't see how the carrier gets damaged. and like other stated, dye test could get u peace of mind

spr993

Thanks for your reassurance

spr993

With the 5 lug conversion decision taken for a NB 997.2 GT3, which are the wheels of choice? Fikse, BBS, Forgeline, HRE or Porsche OE 997 GT3 Gen 1 ? I'd prefer to run standard (or close to standard) wheel widths/offsets 8.5 & 12 x 19 with 53 & 63 ET with OE rubber size. The car is not intended as track only; it'll probably be 90% street. Given overall cost of conversion+wheels, I want to do this once and do it right (quality is v. important to me) so I'd prefer to do forged not cast wheels (which would probably rule out the Porsche OE 997 GT3 Gen 1 wheels).

paver

and CCW, Finspeed... but no need to convert if it's 90% street

spr993

Understand 5 lug conversion is more of a must for the track but do all my own maintenance, regularly pull wheels for brake fluid change etc and want the peace of mind and straightforward simplicity/reliability of conventional 5 lugs - to me the centre locks are a fashion statement I'm not interested in.

mdrums

90% street use???I'd just leave the CL's on. 5 lug conversion is for guy that mostly track the car.

If you just want top shelf light weight better than oem wheels look at Forgeline, HRE, BBS. 9x19 et46-48 12x19 et60-63 will fill the wheel well nicely.

ranger22

I'm partial to Forgelines. My car is torn apart right in the process of the 5-lug conversion. Looking forward to finally driving it again. Its been more than a month given all the work thats been done.